Review Detail

Box: I know you've probably heard this, but it looks kinda like a cigarette box. Says 'White Lions' on the front with an image of a lion (and a 7 of Diamonds reveal). There's a 'Series A Blue', but I'm not sure if there's gonna be a series B since the Lions never saw a 2nd Ed. Just a Split Spade with lion faces artwork on one side of the box and the same artwork along with 'Designed by Mark D. Stutzman' on the other. The back shows the card backs.

Design: The design is pretty neat. Its clutter free and simple. Looks elegant. Although a bit on the downside after the phenomenal Split Spades designing, but if we were to not compare those two, this looks decent. People say its drab and boring, but to me, its a great design because it doesn't look suspicious and is reminiscent of a casino deck.
The backs are a repetition of the split spade logo (with a marking system) and are a very light shade of blue. The Ace of Spades is a small lion in the spade pip, nothing too fancy. The court cards are pretty much your split spade lions court cards with the exception that the buck twins have also been added.
The jokers are kind of 'different'. Its a lion with an umbrella walking an alligator wearing a top hat. The lion's tail is like a spades pip.
You also get a double backer and a card illustrating the grip and mechanics of 'card throwing'.

Stock: The stock is where this deck really excels. Top quality. Its thin but not too thin. Thinner than a split spades deck, so it fits a porper clip with jokers. But its surprisingly stiff for its thickness. Has that snap. Great to dribble and spring. Faro in one direction, but seems to do not too bad in the other direction either after a li'l breaking in.

Finish: Its hard for me to pin point the finish on this deck but its almost the best I have ever handled. If I were to take a guess I'd say Magic Finish. They are really slippery out of the box and creamy smooth after being worked in. Fans and spreads look great. There's very less friction between the cards themselves as compared to other decks by the USPCC. The finish is also very lasting in durable. The finish on these is quite the opposite of what we've come to expect of Kentucky made decks. It feels really nice almost like an Ohio deck.

Conclusion:

All in all a positive review for the deck. Worth the price if you got it from the Blaine website. I've seen these go from between $12 to $18 on ebay now that they've been deemed 'rare'. But its a really nice deck. Feels superb, handles really well. Top quality. If you collect then these will be a valuable addition.

Note: Some details on illustrations and the marking system: http://labyrinthhsieh.blogspot.com/2011 ... crets.html